The MCU’s Civil War Completely Forgot The Comic’s Most Important Hero

The fan-favorite Marvel film Captain America: Civil War dealt with the fallout from the signing of the the Superhuman Registration Act (aka the Sokovia Accords) after the Sokovia Incident, but the movie forgot the comic’s most important Civil War comic character: Speedball. In the comics, Robbie Baldwin is a longtime Avenger who leads the New Warriors and ends up being the sole survivor of the Stamford Incident, prompting the public to demand superhuman registration. The Stamford Incident, Speedball’s downfall, and his tragic transformation place him in Wanda Maximoff’s movie role as the person who blames themself for the disaster, but Robbie’s story gets a lot darker than fans saw in the MCU.

Robbie Baldwin, first introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22 (1988), was working in the Hammond Research Laboratory when an accident bombarded him with extra-dimensional energy, giving his body a kinetic energy field. Speedball joined the young adult superhero team the New Warriors, and later signed up for a reality show based on their crime fighting. Followed by a camera crew, the team pursues a group of escaped supervillains to Stamford, Connecticut, while filming their show’s second season, and Speedball attacks the villain Nitro, not knowing he has enhanced his powers with Mutant Growth Hormone. Nitro’s powers cause a massive explosion far larger than any the villain was capable of before, leveling all of Stamford and killing 612 people, including 60 children.

All of the New Warriors were assumed to have died in the Stamford Incident, but Robbie was found over 500 feet away, having been saved by his kinetic powers, but finding that the effort had depleted his connection to the kinetic force. Following this senseless tragedy, caused by the hubris of the attention-craving New Warriors, Speedball fell into a self-destructive spiral. Robbie quickly realized his powers had actually developed, so that he could send out dangerous kinetic bursts. He changed his name to Penance, wearing a suit of armor that had 612 spikes on it (one for each of ‘his’ victims), including 60 spikes that were inside his suit and cut him every time he moved.

While the MCU’s Sokovia Incident was another tragic accident caused by the hubris of the Avengers, it didn’t have the same emotional impact of the Stamford Incident in the comics, which leveled a small American town. This incident led to Iron Man advocating for the Superhero Registration Act, and starting an all-out Civil War against Captain America. The MCU’s Civil War, caused in part by Tony Stark’s pet-project Ultron and devolving into a highly personal final battle, never saw Iron Man or Captain America truly need to take accountability for their actions, and including Speedball’s story of failure and (eventual) redemption would have added a lot of complexity to the story.

Robbie’s redemption came slowly, with Penance being involved in Avengers: The Initiative, as part of Norman Osborn’s supervillain Thunderbolts. There, he acted as a vicious check on the self-serving team, but was ultimately brought back to himself through psychiatric help and the love of his friends and allies, especially Squirrel Girl. As part of the Fear Itself: Home Front event, Robbie was found volunteering undercover at a Stamford charity run by the mother of one of the children killed, and was brutally attacked by a mob, although his powers kept him from being harmed. Speedball was eventually able to help the citizens of Stamford during Sin’s ‘American Blitzkrieg’ attacks, helping to redeem himself in his and the public’s eyes, and returning some joy to his life.

Both the MCU and comics Civil War events were preceded by great tragedy, but having the Stamford incident occur in small-town America, killing so many innocents and a whole team of heroes, while showing the on-the-ground impact of the devastation, brought the comics Civil War to a whole other level. While Captain America: Civil War is an iconic film, the MCU missed an opportunity to tap into Speedball‘s genuine culpability, and add even more depth to the already tragic story.

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